Protesters demonstrate in front of Planned Parenthood in support of 40 Days 4 Life

ST. GEORGE — As anti-abortion activists rallied around the country Saturday, nearly 40 people showed up in St. George in support of 40 Days 4 Life, a nationwide event seeking to defund access to Planned Parenthood for Medicaid patients.

Nearly 40 protesters showed up to demonstrate in front of the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. George, Utah, Feb. 11, 2017 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News

The demonstration took place in front of the Planned Parenthood clinic at 600 S. Bluff Street and included a coalition of groups, including the Pro-life Action League, Pro-life Ministry St. George Catholic Church, St. George Catholic Church Knights of Columbus and Save the Storks.

The Fitzpatrick family demonstrates during a tour of the country representing Save the Storks in St. George, Utah, Feb. 11, 2017 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News

Fitzpatrick is the mother of six young children. The family was on a “homeschooling field trip” that started in the District of Columbia for the presidential inauguration and the recent “March for Life” event and stretched all the way to the west.

Along the way, the family frequently stopped at similar rallies around the country representing the Save the Storks anti-abortion organization.

“We’ve never had this many people,” Julia Romanov, president of the Pro-Life Ministry, said.

Romanov holds monthly demonstrations, but she said only a handful of people usually turn out.

“If we defund Planned Parenthood, think of the support services that we could offer women who are in that place where they’re not sure about their decisions,” Romanov said. “We could offer them all kinds of services, such as assistance with child care.”

Romanov also suggested education, housing subsidies and parenting classes could be offered.

“If they have so much support, let them get it from donations, not from my tax money to kill children,” Milecki said, referring to Planned Parenthood.

Protesters demonstrate in front of the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. George, Utah, Feb. 11, 2017 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News

“Well, it’s really a misnomer. They’re calling it defunding. The first act that congress has threatened to take is to say that a person whose health care is paid for by Medicaid can’t use that insurance that they have through Medicaid at Planned Parenthood,” Karrie Galloway, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, said in an interview with St. George News.

Galloway argued that the end result of a defunding effort is that women will lose access to affordable care not offered elsewhere.

“So, in reality they’re using the word defunding because they feel it plays better than we want to control women and say where they can get their health care,” Galloway said. “So, it’s a political move playing with people’s health care.”

The Planned Parenthood clinic in St. George does not offer elective abortions and instead focuses on access to birth control, cancer screening and sexually transmitted disease testing.

“In St. George there aren’t a lot of other providers who take Medicaid for payment,” Galloway said. “And the community health center where some of the politicians are saying that Planned Parenthood patients can go can’t absorb all of those women; they aren’t specialists in reproductive health care.”

A protester demonstrates in front of the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. George, Utah, Feb. 11, 2017 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News

However, the fight goes deeper than funding and access, according to Romanov who said she sees abortion as a moral failing in society.

“It is really not about killing children. It’s not about abortion, really,” Romanov said. “It’s about men and women choosing to have indiscriminate sex without any responsibility, no responsibility at all. It’s really about our moral structure and where we have gone with that.”

These protests are designed to shame the patients who seek basic health care services from Planned Parenthood and to intimidate the health care professionals who work here. Women should be able to get health care without fear of violence, harassment or intimidation.

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About the Author

Joseph Witham is a Utah Valley University graduate with a bachelor's degree in communication. He loves the Utah outdoors scene and is likely to be found camping or hiking in any one of the state's epic landscapes on a given weekend. He is equally passionate about writing and was published in various news media, including The Daily Herald in Utah County, before joining St. George News.

41 Comments

Well, if they want all these babies to be born (most of them to impoverished minority single mothers) they’re going to have to give them generous welfare benefits and a lot lot more, otherwise they just end up as wards of the state, grow up to be thugs, and end up in the prison system. That’s just reality. And yes you can blame a lot of it on a culture of promiscuity and degeneracy (we can thank our wonderful zionists for a big part in that since they basically run every single sector of media from hollywood to music to publishing to even the porn industry, and that’s just a fact).

The problem goes with both genders. The zionist’s influence corrupts both men and women. The loser men are often long gone after the woman gets pregnant, and the woman might not even know which man sired the child.

First off, I want to make it clear that I am, as a general rule, against both abortion, and suicide. That being said though, there are situations where a child is medically aborted, just as there are situations where assisted suicide, is appropriate.
From the article:
“It is really not about killing children. It’s not about abortion, really,” Romanov said. “It’s about men and women choosing to have indiscriminate sex without any responsibility, no responsibility at all. It’s really about our moral structure and where we have gone with that.”
In other words, it is about you telling me what to do. It is about giving you the power to lord it over everyone else, whose beliefs just might not coincide with your own. Why the heck don’t all you nosy parkers get a life for yourself, and quit trying to tell everybody else what to do.
What you people are doing, is, (if it is successful,) going to drive abortion under ground, just like it used to be. Now I know that all you folks are perfect, and your kids are perfect as well. But, just for the sake of argument, say little Suzi, (who is a teenager,) becomes pregnant. I truly doubt that it would be Immaculate Conception…
Let’s also add that you are just horrified by this, and are far more worried about “what people will say,” than you are about little Suzi’s welfare. After all, you can’t have it known that your daughter, “did the dirty!”
So you make the decision to abort. OR little Suzi, knowing what your reaction would be, just neglects to tell you, and has an abortion. Would you rather it was a medically sanctioned, safe procedure, or would you rather see her go to a filthy old woman who lives off the alley and does abortions out of her equally filthy home, so she can have enough money to eat?
Oh wait, I think I know the answer to that:
“As long as the pregnancy is terminated, and we don’t have to face facts, we don’t care where she gets it. Just get rid of the kid.”

Too bad that those families are more concerned about their “public image” than the life of an innocent child. I thank God that my birth mother had the courage and support of her family to place me with my adopted family.

commentsFebruary 13, 2017 at 12:52 pm

Well, it is killing, and it’s a shame and a waste in a lot of ways. It’s a real conundrum isn’t it.

Let me ask you this. If it’s none of my business when people have sex then why does it become my responsibility if a pregnancy is the result and I am forced to pay for the abortion? Millions of Americans feel this way, because this is a moral issue. We do not want to be a party to the killing of a human life.
As you say, there are many reasons parents have abortions; poverty, abuse, incest, rape, genocide (in the case of Blacks) and yes inconvenience. There are even those that don’t want to face what they consider shame for being pregnant outside of marriage. All these reasons can be solved by one solution. ADOPTION. Being pregnant is not really an inconvenience unless you are a model, star athlete or some other profession that involves the body. It’s not until the baby is born that time and money are required. Adoption is the answer to all situations. There are even people with wonderfully generous hearts that they would even adopt handicapped or drug addicted babies.
So, now going back to that comment about how people want unfettered sex without the inconvenience and responsibility of children, sadly this is truer then you want to believe. Adoption is still the answer.
Abortion has become a multimillion dollar business and there is proof that the majority of offices do not provide health care. Abortion IS NOT health care it is the killing of human life and the majority of Americans do not want to be a party to it. DO NOT USE MY TAX DOLLARS TO KILL!

In a way it is, but life is messy like that and often violent, and sometimes the end justifies the means. Imagine if a thug was for certain going to kill your family member, and what if an “angel of the Lord ” (LOL) came down beforehand and gave you the option to have that same thug aborted before it even came into existence? I’d abort 10million thugs to save 1 innocent. Do you understand what i’m saying? lol :))

Eugenics would be a good thing to study. Hard to do it ethically though, especially with the whole “nazi” thing and all. Just think of all the taxes you’re saving by not having to pay for all those aborted “welfare babies” and be grateful for PP.

HenryFebruary 13, 2017 at 4:34 pm

Bob, I think we agree that we don’t like our tax dollars going toward welfare. People should have the self discipline and access to utilize birth control. And it’s been proven that children raised in two parent homes are less likely to go on welfare or be incarcerated.

But it’s a slippery slope when we start talking about money saved via abortion. Compare your comment: “Just think of all the taxes you’re saving by not having to pay for all those aborted ‘welfare babies’ ” to this:

“The war allowed Hitler the cover and justification to radicalize the T4 Euthanasia program against those lives deemed “not worth living” by pointing to the costs of maintaining those “useless eaters” during a time of war. It allowed license for Karl Brandt to “clear hospital beds” in the name of the war effort. The war’s conquered territory also brought conquered populations and increased the number of “unfit” and “undesired” population, including the Jewish population of Eastern Europe. The methods and technology of the T4 Euthanasia program were subsequently transferred from the German hospitals to the extermination camps.”
― A.E. Samaan, “From a ‘Race of Masters’ to a ‘Master Race’: 1948 to 1848”

commentsFebruary 13, 2017 at 6:23 pm

Isn’t bringing up Hitler in the abortion debate kind of “the last card in the deck”. We don’t have any politically forced abortions, so I don’t see a valid comparison. I’m always hearing about “the massive shortage of babies available to adopt”, but I wonder if they’d even be able to place all these babies that got aborted had they not been. Would be interesting to know.

HenryFebruary 13, 2017 at 9:33 pm

You said, “think of all the taxes you’re saving by not having to pay for all those aborted ‘welfare babies’ “. The reference cited “Hitler….. pointing out the costs of maintaining those ‘useless eaters’ “. The logic sounds pretty similar, Bob.

commentsFebruary 14, 2017 at 1:02 pm

It seems quite a stretch. The logic is slightly similar, but it’s a fairly typical republican logic like the referencing of “welfare moms”. Somebody got to pay for these “welfare babies” in the end. You can’t have your cake and eat it too–be anti welfare and pro life.

HenryFebruary 14, 2017 at 3:54 pm

Logic fail. You can lessen welfare and be pro-life by more widespread use of birth control and , failing that, more widespread adoption.

commentsFebruary 14, 2017 at 6:49 pm

In the end it comes down to personal preference. Even you could admit that you’d rather see some women get abortions over other women. If you said you didn’t you’d be lying to yourself. In a perfect world we’d save them all. This world is a lot more messy. I always keep an open mind to this sort of thing tho. It’s an interesting topic

HenryFebruary 14, 2017 at 9:21 pm

No, I’m not “lying to myself”. As I stated before, I was an adoptee myself; I don’t wish for any woman to get an abortion (although I don’t harbor ill feelings toward any women that has). You truly do need to develop “an open mind” that people can have different backgrounds and come to different conclusions than you.

It is not my intent to “tell you what to do with your body”; rather I am stating my opinion, just as we all have the right to express. What my suggestion is (and this was edited out) is that the money currently given to PP, which is anywhere from $485 million to $500 million yearly, be designated in a different manner. I have had two abortions and the only choices available were adoption and abortion. For me, that was not much of a choice. So, you, see, I have walked in those shoes, and yes, I do believe in women’s’ choice, but what I would like us to consider and again, this is just my opinion, but better choices and more of them. Why can’t we as a society offer not welfare necessarily (but perhaps people would see it as a form of welfare) but more alternatives? The money currently given to PP could possibly go to the states and options such as financial support for someone to get their GED, or if in college as I was (working part-time, full load of classes, rent, etc.,) offer a break on tuition in some way—parenting training, follow-up prenatal care, day care at a reasonable fee, more shared adoption resources, counseling, etc. We can think outside the box and come up with other creative ideas so that women would not have to go through the emotional heartbreak of abortion. Unfortunately, I don’t have children; I did have breast cancer and the only one in my family of five sisters to be diagnosed at the time. Interestingly, China did a study back in the 90’s that showed women who have had multiple abortions have a greater chance of breast cancer. There are effects of abortion on our bodies that I believe we don’t even know about yet and if they did know it makes me wonder if we would be told. (How many know about the China study?) I would support my money going to fund these options or others rather than to an organization that refused to admit they sell the body parts of babies, an organization that kills babies, and targets those women in low-income areas, particularly the African- American community, etc. So I trust you can see I’m not taking the moral high ground, in retrospect I would have loved to have had these choices, and personally hope and pray one day we do have a society where abortion is abolished. Where women have the support and choices they desire to enable them to have their babies, and not live a life filled with secrets, shame, drugs, multiple sex partners, anger, and forgiveness. Is it asking too much? Never give up Prayer and never lose Hope.

To a person reaching a certain age and wishing they had had children I can imagine it’s more of a strong sense of regret than anything. With abortion, I’d imagine the whole ‘what could have been’ line of thinking might occur to those people at some point.

I could say the same back at you. Abortion is murder, (life starts at conception) I’m sorry if you don’t think it does and I’m sorry your are calloused (intelligence has nothing to with it) and don’t understand the difference between life and death

There is a difference between potential for life (a fetus) and life. If a fetus from 1-20 weeks gestation cannot survive outside the womb, is it really alive? It has the potential to be a live, but it is not yet an independent life.

Like it or not (and I am in the not liking it side), abortion is legal and ought to remain so.

Alright, so here is my take on all this hullabaloo that has gone back forth since Roe vs. Wade. Ive heard the arguments on both sides and I understand them both. I can sympathsize with men and women on both sides and can agree with certain aspects of both. Before I say what im going to say I will stipulate that Ive never been a mother and never been a in a position like jchh above. On the other hand I have heard many arguments from many people of all walks of life who fall on both sides.

Jchh, However you feel about what you did, I want you to know that you have my support in whatever way is needed for you. I admire your courage in telling your story and respect your opinion.

Here goes,

I support a womans right to choose.

Here’s why:

As Jchh stated, she felt, for whatever reason, that she had no choice. To me, her reasons for why she did what she did don’t matter. Right or wrong, the choice was hers to make and hers alone.

I agree with ‘comments’ opinion above.

The only thing making abortions illegal will do it push it underground again.

The late Nurse and Midwife Jennifer Worth had this to say about it:In 1967 the Abortion Act was passed, and abortion was no longer illegal [In the U.K]. When I was a gynaecology ward sister at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson hospital in London, I was sometimes asked whether or not I approved of it. My reply was that I did not regard it as a moral issue, but as a medical issue. A minority of women will always want an abortion. Therefore, it must be done properly.

I agree with her.

The primary argument I’ve heard from people who are pro life is that legal abortion somehow encourages promiscuity. This argument, while rooted in good intentions, is profoundly false. This argument ignores the fact that people are human and make mistakes. It also ignores things like rape and incest and places “blame” on the woman.

The only thing making abortions illegal will do it push it underground again.

I believe people have a right to screw up their life and find their way. I don’t agree that abortion should be government funded. And my right to choose is that my tax dollars do not fund abortions. Do I have a choice in that? No. But that doesn’t mean I support my tax dollars funding abortions? No. Get your own funding

That’s why Jesus came and died and rose again the third day for us. He died for us, because we are so corrupted that we can’t make it to heaven on our own. As long as you have breath, you can choose Jesus and change your ways. Jesus is the truth, the life, and the way. The only way to God is through
the son Jesus. As long as you have breath, there is hope to find your way to the truth, Jesus.
And that is fantastic news!